Basic Mixology

Learning Mixology

It isn't too long before Nikita starts getting a little cabin fever. Her lifetime wish is to raise five children, but Saint committed to his career this early, and their little apartment isn't conducive to parenthood. She's already a Natural Cook, so she decides to earn a little money as a "mixologist"... or, in other words, a bartender. After all, she's got the, uh, assets to get a good tip.

Mixology is a new job skill for Late Night. Unlike most skills, the object attached to it (that is, a juice bar) is a little expensive and large to buy and practice on for a small Generation-1 family in a tiny apartment. Luckily, there are books on the subject. After Saint heads to the lot for the day, Nikita calls up a cab and heads over to the bookstore and picks up the Mixology Volume 1 book. She heads to the library and quickly gets to level 2.

Nikita wants to go into business as a self-employed mixologist, but strangely, even with Ambitions installed, it's not possible. It's not necessary to do so, as she can still earn tips by freelance bartending, though it's a little odd that she can't simply declare it a business for herself. Still, she doesn't have a job otherwise, and this will give her something to do while bringing a little extra cash.

Mixology is just like the other job skills: it's improved up to level 10 by practice. Anyone can practice from home, and you can just read books to get it to level 9, but it's best when used as a bartender working for tips.

Scouting Clubs

Now that she's a level 2 mixologist, Nikita scouts Bridgeport to find a place to work. You can easily find clubs in map view by filtering them by the "Night Life" category. Map tags include martini glasses, beer bottles, and a guy dancing to a speaker twice his size. These tags give you a general idea of their themes, but not their exclusivity.

Nikita doubts she can get into anything too upper class, so she looks at the Bridgeport Sports Zone. Mousing over the map tag gives us the hours of its operation, and we're in luck: it's just opened! Almost all clubs run at night and don't close until very late at night (or very early in the morning before the sun comes up, depending on your perspective). She heads over to the lot right away, then examines the elevator. Some club lots feature multiple floors with different access levels, but the Sports Zone only has one, and it's open to all.

Or at least, that's what she thinks. Once she heads up, she sees that the club's floor is divided into two distinct sections. Even more importantly, there's a bouncer at each door. She makes it through the first door and into the public area okay (as you can see in the screenshot below), but she's got the Shy trait and is uncomfortable being here at all, let alone trying to talk to a bouncer. If she was feeling braver or had more advantageous traits, she could try bribing the bouncer or otherwise convincing her to let her in.

Nikita doesn't really mind. The first area is has a bar, and it's a good enough start. However, one glance around the bar tells her that she might have been unlucky: the bar is dead! Every night, one bar in Bridgeport has a chance to be a "hot spot" and will have tons of visitors. Other bars may even be declared "dead" for a night and be totally vacant. The special status only lasts a day, but you're rarely informed of it until you visit the lot itself. Nikita doesn't get either message here, which means the lot isn't actually dead for tonight; there just don't happen to be any customers right now.

Nikita is all right with this for now since she's got the Shy trait anyway. By interacting with the bar, she selects the "Moonlight as Mixologist" command. Note that this command won't be available until the Sim has at least 2 levels of the mixologist skill. It's not that the command will be grayed out if the Sim is under-qualified; the option simply isn't there.

Nikita is level 2 though, so she takes her place behind the bar. Without customers, she automatically starts to clean the bar, which strangely improves her mixology skill. She doesn't have to do it for long: customers start coming in immediately! Maybe word of her revealing formal dress got around town.

She has an option to buy drinks for everyone on the lot, which draws customers and gives her practice at the cost of money. Even at this early level, the cost of doing this is negligible: it's only $24 to fill the beer bellies of everyone here. Nikita decides against it however; the customers are flocking to the bar anyway, so she may as well help them before essentially bribing them all for some business.

Because being a mixologist isn't a formal job, it has open work hours. Nikita could hang out and tend the bar as long as her mood meters stay green. Once she leaves, she reports her income and collects. She doesn't get any tips (she dropped three bottles while trying that bottle flip thing!), but she does pick up $88 for her work. Definitely not enough to live on, but it's a start.